Loan  Exhibition 


C Jr 

H 


Paintings  by 

Charles  W.  Hawthorne,  N.  A. 


The  Macbeth  Gallery 

450  Fifth  Ave.  New  York 
at  Fortieth  Street 


Loan  Exhibition 

Paintings  by 

Charles  W.  Hawthorne,  N.A. 


February 

1 9 1 7 


There  is  NO  CHARGE  for  this  Catalogue 


But  if  it  is  worth  anything  to  you , 
we  give  you  opportunity  to  express 
it  in  the  form  of  a  contribution  to 


THE  AMERICAN  NATIONAL 
RED  CROSS 


'Box  on  Table) 


The  Macbeth  Gallery 

450  Fifth  Ave.  New  York 

at  Fortieth  Street 


THE  MACBETH  GALLERY 


Adoration 


Courtesy  of 
City  Art  Museum,  St.  Louis 


CHARLES  W  .  HAWTHORNE 


TITLES  OF  THE  PICTURES 


I 

Venetian  Girl 

Lent  by  Worcester  Art  Museum 

2 

The  Lovers 

3 

Boy  with  Shad 

Lent  by  Ralph  King,  Esq. 

4 

Adoration 

Lent  by  City  Art  Museum,  St.  Louis 

5 

School  Girls 

Lent  by  Ralph  King,  Esq. 

6 

Mother  and  Child 

Lent  by  Syracuse  Museum  of  Fine  Arts 

7 

Youth 

Lent  by  Mrs.  C.  K.  Fox 

8 

End  of  Day 

Lent  by  W.  S.  Pardee,  Esq. 

9 

The  Widow 

IO 

The  Mother 

Lent  by  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts 

1 1 

Blue  Girl 

Lent  by  W.  S.  Pardee,  Esq. 

12 

Fisherman  and  Daughter 

Lent  by  W.  S.  Pardee,  Esq. 

13 

Daffodils 

Lent  by  Duncan  Phillips,  Esq. 

14 

Refining  Oil 

Lent  by  Detroit  Museum  of  Art 

15 

Sewing  Girl 

Lent  by  Joel  W.  Burdick,  Esq. 


THE  MACBETH  GALLERY 


Youth 


Courtesy  of 
Mrs.  Charles  K.  Fox 


CHARLES  W.  HAWTHORNE 


CHARLES  W.  HAWTHORNE 

By  Duncan  Phillips 

BECAUSE  young  Charles  W.  Hawthorne  had  been 
a  favorite  pupil  of  William  M.  Chase,  had 
studied  Hals  with  him  in  Holland,  and  painted 
brass  and  fish  with  him  at  Shinnecock,  with  a  zest 
for  the  same  “bravura”  of  brushwork,  it  seemed  safe 
to  assume,  as  a  well-known  critic  actually  did  in  1905, 
that  this  young  Hawthorne  would  turn  out  to  be 
another  objective  virtuoso  of  the  flowing  brush.  This 
critic  applauded  the  virility  of  his  vigorous  youth  arid 
the  becoming  brutality  thereof.  Hawthorne  was  already 
on  Cape  Cod  and  was  painting  fisher-folk  and  their 
catches,  in  their  own  brine-soaked  atmosphere.  The 
critic  was  sure  that  Hawthorne  was  an  able  painter,  but 
also  sure  that  he  was  “incapable  of  analytical  reflection,” 
“with  scarcely  a  hint  of  sensitive  compassion”  for  his 
subjects.  He  was  simply  a  clever  brushman  with  a 
“savage,  angular  style.”  He  was  only  able  to  paint  what 
he  could  see  and  he  saw  all  too  plainly.  Well — perhaps 
it  was  for  the  best  that  he  recognized  his  limitations. 
And  how  refreshing  it  was  to  find  an  American  so  free 
from  foreign  influence! 

How  strange  it  all  sounds  to-day,  this  estimate  of  Haw¬ 
thorne  as  he  seemed  to  a  critic  eleven  years  ago.  Now¬ 
adays  we  grant  him  an  original  note  of  poetry,  a  sympa¬ 
thetic  insight  into  character,  a  keen  comprehension  of 
and  compassion  for  the  humble  fisher-folk  he  has  painted 


THE  MACBETH  GALLERY 


The  Widow 


CHARLES  W  .  HAWTHORNE 


so  often.  But  we  say  that  he  shows  too  much  Italian 
mannerism  and  that  he  is  too  much  inclined  to  become 
sentimental  over  his  subjects.  We  say  that  his  flesh 
tones  are  too  waxy,  that  his  flat  modeling  often  seems 
like  an  affectation  of  archaic  simplicity,  and  that  his 
heads  often  seem  detached  or  at  least  detachable  from 
his  bodies.  At  Provincetown,  however,  where  Haw¬ 
thorne  teaches  the  principles  of  pictorial  art  and  the 
practice  of  painting  out-of-doors  to  a  colony  of  students, 
he  is  considered  both  a  great  teacher  and  a  great  painter. 
His  pupils  know  that  he  can  still  paint  for  painting’s  sake 
with  the  skill  of  a  Vollon,  a  Chase,  or  a  Henri.  The  truth 
of  the  matter  is  that  he  has  been  to  Italy  and  his  work  is 
haunted  by  its  beauties.  It  was  Italy  which  pacified  his 
violent  clash  of  jarring  colors  and  gave  his  tones  in¬ 
stead  an  emotional  subtlety  of  relationship.  It  was 
Italy  which  modified  his  aggressive  brush  stroke  and 
made  his  surfaces  sensuous  with  a  lustrous  mellow  paste. 
Most  of  all  it  was  Italy  which  gave  him  the  sentiment 
for  his  chosen  subjects  which  he  had  lacked  before. 

Hawthorne  came  to  a  period  in  his  development  when 
brutality  was  no  longer  congenial  to  him.  He  went  to 
Italy  in  1907  at  the  age  of  36  to  get  out  of  the  habit  of 
being  a  brutal  and  brilliant  painter.  A  wistfulness  had 
crept  into  his  work  so  noticeably  that  Charles  H.  Caffin 
in  his  “Story  of  American  Painting,’’  although  still  brack¬ 
eting  him  with  Henri,  Glackens  and  Luks,  had  the  in¬ 
tuition  to  observe,  “this  painter  has  not  yet  found  him¬ 
self.  That  he  will  do  so  is  probable  for  he  is  now  in  Italy 
where  men  discover  that  brushwork  does  not  constitute  the 
whole  of  painting.”  In  the  presence  of  the  great  paintings 


THE  MACBETH  GALLERY 


Mother  and  Child 

Courtesy  of 
Syracuse  Museum  of  Fine  Arts 


CHARLES  W.  HAWTHORNE 


of  Giorgione  and  Titian,  Hawthorne  discovered  within 
himself  hitherto  unrecognized  capacities  for  aesthetic 
enjoyment.  He  delighted  in  subtly  constructed  relations 
of  technical  elements  and  came  to  think  of  painting  in 
terms  of  music.  He  realized  that  never  again  would  he 
force  his  lights  and  shadows  and  crisply  model  his  forms 
to  make  them  “stand  out.”  How  much  more  beautiful 
was  the  decorative  convention  of  comparative  flatness  of 
modelling  and  of  varied  combinations  of  colors  arranged 
within  the  same  scale  of  tone.  The  surfaces  of  old 
Italian  pictures  enthralled  him.  If  the  Venetians  under¬ 
painted  in  tempera,  was  it  not  worth  his  while  to  experi¬ 
ment  with  that  method?  It  is  to  Hawthorne’s  credit 
that  in  spite  of  the  spell  which  Italy  cast  over  him  and 
the  metamorphosis  it  made  in  his  work,  yet  he  main¬ 
tained  his  individuality.  His  own  work,  although  in¬ 
spired  by  Italy,  is  not  reminiscent  of  any  Italian  painter. 
His  surfaces  have  a  look  of  mellow  glaze  under  granu¬ 
lation  which  curiously  resembles  the  patina  of  Oriental 
pottery.  Emphatically  he  denies  Oriental  influence. 
Discussing  the  genesis  of  his  texture  with  him  recently, 
he  suddenly  exclaimed:  “I  never  thought  of  it  before, 
but  now  that  you  mention  it,  I  believe  that  it  was  not 
Italian  pictures  which  inspired  that  particular  surface 
but  Italy  itself — the  familiar  look  of  it  as  I  lived  there 
day  after  day,  the  texture  of  the  trees,  of  the  soil,  of  the 
walls,  and — oh,  I  don’t  know — just  Italy!” 

But  Italy  did  not  merely  alter  the  surfaces  of  Haw¬ 
thorne’s  pictures  and  the  direction  of  his  technical  ap¬ 
proach.  What  it  really  did  to  him  was  to  stir  into  con¬ 
scious  life,  under  that  swashbuckling  strength  of  his, 


THE  MACBETH  GALLERY 


School  Girls 


Courtesy  of 
Ralph  King.  Esq. 


CHARLES  W  .  HAWTHORNE 


depths  of  tenderness  and  poetic  insight,  hitherto  unsus¬ 
pected.  Thereafter  his  approach  to  his  subjects  was  not 
undertaken  so  much  as  a  technical  exploit  nor  even  as 
an  intellectual  adventure,  but  as  an  emotional  experi¬ 
ence.  Giorgione  was  the  first  great  painter  to  make  a 
record  of  that  look  in  the  eye  which  manifests  a  soul 
which,  for  the  moment,  at  least,  is  self-withdrawn.  Yet 
it  was  Titian’s  Young  Englishman  of  the  Pitti  Palace 
who  particularly  fascinated  the  American  painter;  that 
stalwart  man  of  action  observed  in  a  mood  of  such  ab¬ 
sorbing  reverie  that  his  large  eyes  stare  at  us  without 
seeing  us,  while  his  whole  body  seems  rigid  with  the  con¬ 
centration  of  his  thoughts.  In  consequence  of  this  por¬ 
trait’s  strong  influence  on  Hawthorne,  it  must  be  ac¬ 
knowledged  that  his  Cape  Cod  fishermen  and  their 
families  have  formed  the  habit  of  stolidly,  stupidly 
staring  at  us  without  seeing  us,  ever  since.  It  was  orig¬ 
inal  with  him,  although  inspired  by  Giorgionesque  por¬ 
trait  heads,  to  make  us  realize  that  even  the  fishermen 
of  Provincetown  have  their  happy  day-dreams  and 
their  sharp,  relentless  tragedies.  The  unspoken  thought 
interested  the  poet  in  him.  He  sought  for  various 
ways  to  express  the  silences  which  suddenly  separate 
us  from  one  another,  at  those  moments  when,  in  the 
midst  of  company,  we  are  alone.  Hawthorne’s  Cape 
Cod  models  have  thus  been  given  universal  significance 
as  symbols  for  us  all.  Big  moments  are  suggested 
by  the  faces  of  these  people,  old  and  young.  Imagi¬ 
nation  is  stimulated  through  the  painter’s  sugges¬ 
tions  of  some  of  the  great  forces  eternally  at  work  in 
human  hearts. 


THE  MACBETH  GALLERY 


Fisherman  and  Daughter 


Courtesy  of 
W.  S.  Pardee,  Esq. 


CHARLES  W  .  HAWTHORNE 


All  ages  have  been  given  sympathetic  interpretation 
in  the  paintings  of  Hawthorne,  but  one  type  prevails  and 
reappears.  Being  himself  a  big,  simple  man,  his  models 
are  usually  simple  people,  more  or  less  symbolical  in 
suggestion,  roughly  generalized  rather  than  individually 
characterized.  In  Hawthorne’s  picture  entitled  “Youth” 
a  boy  and  a  girl,  playmates  yesterday,  walk  hand  in 
hand,  their  faces  pale  and  serious,  out  of  the  world  of 
play,  into  the  world  of  labor  and  danger  and  wonder.  It 
is  youth  which  appeals  most  keenly  to  this  artist;  the 
freshness  and  wistfulness  of  maidenhood  have  won  from 
Hawthorne  many  a  graceful  tribute.  None  is  more 
charming  than  the  lovely  composition  in  tones  of  pearl 
and  turquoise  and  pale  gold  entitled  “Daffodils.”  But 
the  masterpiece  of  the  artist  is  the  tragedy  called  “The 
Widow,”  in  which  solemn  twilight  tones  of  color  sound 
like  muffled  funeral  bells.  A  great  lone  star  is  shining, 
steadfast,  eternal.  A  flag  flies  at  half-mast  over  the 
square  sails  of  the  huddled  boats  in  the  harbor.  Dry¬ 
eyed,  desolate,  yet  passionless  in  her  grief,  a  young  dark 
mother  clasps  her  baby  close.  Soon  she  will  understand 
what  has  happened  to  her.  Night  is  falling — but  never 
again  can  her  man  come  home. 

I  could  dwell  critically  upon  the  mannered  technique 
of  Hawthorne  and  find  faults  with  the  excessively  flat 
modelling,  the  heavily  opaque  and  oft-times  discordant 
color  of  the  less  successful  pictures  of  later  years.  I 
could  say  that  as  a  rule  there  is  too  much  of  a  sameness 
of  texture  all  over  these  panels;  that  he  cannot  or  will 
not  vary  his  style  to  suit  his  subject.  And  yet  so  power¬ 
ful  is  the  drawing  and  the  painting  of  the  best  pictures 


THE  MACBETH  GALLERY 


Venetian  Girl 

Courtesy  of 
Worcester  Art  Museum 


of  this  la 
contraste 
in  “The 
itan  Mus 
feet  the  ( 
thorne’s 
man,  am 
may  be 
rank,  it 
he  has 
only  to  1 
one,  and 
for  its  o] 
expressic 
living. 


This 


ared  and 
nes,  and, 
letropol- 
I  so  per- 
1.  Haw- 
a  young 
lopments 
ultimate 
aaintings 
ributable 
spirit  are 
t  merely 
le  special 
fe  worth 


shed 


A  LIFE  STUDY  IN  OIL  BY  C.  W.  HAWTHORNE. 


THE  MACBETH  GALLERY 


Venetian  Girl 

Courtesy  of 
Worcester  Art  Museum 


CHARLES  W 


HAWTHORNE 


of  this  last  and  best  period,  so  sensitively  prepared  and 
contrasted  are  the  resonant  and  reverberant  tones,  and, 
in  “The  Widow”  and  “The  Trousseau”  of  the  Metropol¬ 
itan  Museum,  so  inspired  is  the  conception  and  so  per¬ 
fect  the  execution,  that  fault-finders  are  silenced.  Haw¬ 
thorne’s  story  is  yet,  we  hope,  half  told.  He  is  a  young 
man,  and  of  the  adventurous  breed.  New'  developments 
may  be  confidently  expected.  Whatever  his  ultimate 
rank,  it  is  certain  that  in  at  least  two  of  his  paintings 
he  has  achieved  that  greatness  which  is  attributable 
only  to  those  works  of  art  in  which  form  and  spirit  are 
one,  and  in  which  good  painting  does  not  exist  merely 
for  its  own  sake,  but  seems  to  be  inspired  for  the  special 
expression  of  those  sentiments  which  make  life  worth 
living. 

This  article  is  part  of  an  essay  which  is  to  be  published 
in  The  International  Studio  for  March 


Our  cordial  thanks  are  extended 
to  the  museums  and  to  the  pri¬ 
vate  owners  whose  cooperation  in 
generously  lending  their  pictures 
has  made  this  exhibition  possible 

William  Macbeth 


‘Douglas  C'  (McJlCurtrie 
JA (jzv  York 


